The present disclosure relates to a sheet feed device in which an outside cover and an inside cover, which can open and close a housing, are disposed in alignment, and to an image forming apparatus.
A conventional image forming apparatus such as a coppier or a printer, includes a sheet conveying device for extracting a sheet member (print sheet) stored in a sheet feed cassette, and conveying it. The sheet feed device includes a rotating roller that contacts the sheet member. A rotational driving force of a direction is transmitted to the rotating roller from a motor or the like, thereby the sheet member is conveyed along a conveyance path formed inside the image forming apparatus. In this kind of image forming apparatus, a side cover is provided to expose the conveyance path. For example, a typical image forming apparatus includes a cover that is rotatably supported, with its lower end as a fulcrum. With such a side cover provided, when a jamming of a sheet member occurs in the conveyance path, the user can open the side cover to expose the conveyance path, and easily remove the sheet member from the conveyance path.
Meanwhile, in the case where a conveyance path is formed inside an image forming apparatus, if only one side cover is provided to expose the conveyance path, the side cover needs to have a large thickness. However, when the side cover has a larger thickness, the rotational radius around the fulcrum becomes larger, and the image forming apparatus needs to be larger in height. In view of this, to restrict the image forming apparatus from becoming large in height, a plurality of side covers can be aligned between a side surface of the image forming apparatus and the conveyance path.
In the above-mention configuration where a plurality of side covers are aligned, when an outside side cover positioned in the side surface of the image forming apparatus is rotationally moved, an inside side cover needs to be rotationally moved in conjunction with the rotational movement of the outside side cover. As a mechanism for causing the two side covers to be rotationally moved in conjunction with each other, a mechanism is known in which the outside side cover is coupled with the inside side cover by a link member such as a connecting rod.